MyRAWK - MALAYSIAN RED AND WHITE KOPITES

MyRAWK is a group of dedicated and independent Liverpool FC supporters in Malaysia, committed to the epitome of the Spion Kop cause, virtue and spirit. We'll be organising match viewing gatherings that involve a lot singing and chanting, just like the Kop at Anfield. Stay tuned to our blog as it will serve as one of our channels to keep in touch with our fellow LFC supporters. You'll Never Walk Alone and Justice for the 96!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Kindly point all your browsers to http://www.my-rawk.com for all our latest match reports and articles. Keep up to date with all our latest gatherings and activities also through our new home. This blog will not be updated often and will serve as our archives for our older entries. Please take note.

Thanks for all your support and understanding. We will continue to strive hard to improve our online presence and to better serve the Malaysian LFC supporting community.

There will be a MyRAWK special event and big gathering for this Saturday's early kickoff showdown with Man Utd. The event starts at 6:30pm and 40 early birds wearing LFC kits / attires will be entitled to free food. There will also be freebies - prizes, merchandises and door gifts, for everyone. Test your knowledge on LFC and win yourselves a prize as we will have quizzes and Q&A sessions. Guess the correct final scoreline and one of you will win a grand prize.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

This match pretty much gained top billings over the weekend with the wanted-away Gareth Barry (but never submitted his transfer request, duh!) playing against the team of the man who spent the whole summer chasing after his signature, our Rafa the Gaffa.

Those expecting fireworks would have been sorely disappointed as both teams lined-up to stifle each other. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t really complain too much if we played a little more defensively away from Anfield but this time, Rafa’s lost it. He had 2 strikers in the starting line-up i.e. El Keano but stuck Keano to the left and Torres was upfront by himself. Now, how does that exactly work? Worse still was when Torres tore his hamstring after a quarter of an hour.

O’ Neill was also guilty of defensive tactics even though they had home advantage. They never looked like they set up to win the game. And boy, am I glad we didn’t manage to buy Barry. He was pretty crappy to say the least. Nothing that Xabi or Yossi couldn’t do.

For me, the positive to bring out of this match is Carra and Skrtel are rocks and did not concede, Ngog seems like a gem and we came away unscathed. Nevertheless, it is 2 points dropped. I cannot help but feel yet again we cannot take advantage of other team’s slip-ups. By this I mean Chelsea. We could have been top of the table for 2 weeks but for Rafa’s defensive tactics and putting a table where the lamp* should be.

Are we looking at degenerating into a Houllier-esque meltdown? Honestly, I don’t know but let’s hope we dig ourselves out of this run of unconvincing performances soon. For once, I am glad that the league is on International break. We are still unbeaten, no? Yes we are but for how long?

*In reference to Rafa’s famous ‘table and lamp’ dig at the Valencia board during his last days at the club.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Having barely scraped through the 2 wins in the EPL and the 1st leg draw in Liege, most will be wondering how long more can our lucky streak continue. The previous lackluster performances have got most Reds jumpy and on the edge of their seats. However, most will be sure that a typical European night will bring the best out of the team and the vocal home support will roar them on.

Unfortunately what conspired on Wednesday night didn’t follow the usual Anfield European tie script. In a somewhat more polished outing compared to the shambles that happened in Liege, we still couldn’t contain the youthful and energetic Standard team. Their quick counter attacking play kept our defenders and Pepe on their toes throughout the entire match.

We showed glimpses of good buildup play early in the 1st half with great interlinking play around Standard’s penalty box at the Kop end. But our final balls, touches and shooting were still pretty poor. On the other end, our defense was barely able to contain their fast counter attacking through Mbokani and Fellaini. Pepe was called into action twice to palm away two very good efforts from them. Skrtel, who was paired with Carra, was a lot more comfortable compared to Agger in the first leg.

Keane and Torres were both struggling to find their foothold throughout the entire game and were not helped by limited service from the midfield. But when clear chances did come their way, their finishing was poor. El Niño was not his usual self and was clearly put off by the physical marking on him. Keane was running everywhere trying to link up the play to no avail. We ended up resorting to long range speculative shots from beyond the penalty box through Gerrard and Alonso when we could not break down the stubborn and resolute Standard defense.Our severe lack of width was cruelly exposed time and again when we were crowded out in the midfield area and could not penetrate their flanks through Benayoun and Kuyt. The gaffer finally saw the need to solve the problem and brought in Babel to replace the Israeli international in the middle of the 2nd half. But the young Flying Dutchman was still not in his element after missing a chunk of preseason through injury and Olympics duty.

The turning tide came when El Zhar was brought in late in the second half to replace a Keane that is still trying to find his feet in the team. Kuyt was then moved next to Torres while El Zhar was given specific instructions to stay and hog on the right by-line. Our attacking play improved tremendously and we resumed more control over the remainder of the match. Arbeloa then came close to breaking the dreadlock right at the end of normal time with a ferocious drive that was palmed away by Arogon, the Standard keeper.

The same pattern of play continued as we pressed on for that elusive goal in extra time. Most would have been mentally prepared for the penalty lottery, but our Dutchmen conspired otherwise by working together to finally score THE goal. Babel did great work down the left and sent in a perfect cross for Kuyt to score with a tap in at the far corner. It was enough to send Anfield into a frenzy and £12million into the club’s coffers. That strike alone was enough to pay his entire transfer fee and then some from Feyenoord.

The indifferent start to the season has dumbfounded a lot of Reds even though some have argued that we are perennial slow starters. I personally disagree and believe that we cannot afford to repeat the slow starts anymore, especially when the standard among the teams in the EPL and UCL have been raised so dramatically. We risk being consigned to being “also rans” before we even hit the usual dramatic holiday period and knock-out stage.

The alarming and desperate need for outright wingers cannot be ignored and be emphasized enough. It is not some left footed utility player ala Barry that can play in 3 positions that we need. We must move quickly and sign Albert Riera or some other English winger that the gaffer is eyeing immediately as it will never be easy to fit into a new team once the season has already started. The new wide man will definately have a steep learning curve to adapt to the team. Till then, we better keep our fingers crossed and hope that the fickle minded lady luck stays with us for a little longer while we find our feet.

The Kop Stand

Club Crest outside the Spion Kop

Hello and Apa Khabar from MyRAWK EL PRESIDENTE

This is a very exciting time for us at MyRAWK - Malaysia's very own independent Liverpool community, having established ourselves recently. We are looking forward to the season and to share our unique match viewing experience with each and everyone of you hardcore Liverpool fans. With us, we have a very competent working committee that is slogging hard to ensure everyone enjoys being part of the MyRAWK community. With that I'd like to welcome you as a member of MyRAWK and look forward to meeting everyone at our match viewing parties or other activities.

The future is bright and certainly Liverpool RED!

You'll Never Walk Alone,

Jonathan LimEl PresidenteMyRAWK

HJC - Justice For The 96

The 96 Banner - C.L. Finals 07

MyRAWKites at the CL Final Gathering

MyRAWK @ beDIGITAL TehTarik.TV

Checkout the latest news and everything about LFC through the beDIGITAL TehTarik.TV and MyRAWK news media service in the following Mamak joints all over the Klang Valley: